NATIVES AND EXOTICS

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 189, 12 August 1939, Page 8

NATIVES AND EXOTICS

INDIGENOUS PLANTS

PERSIST.

(By J.C.)

A circular concerning New Zealand trees and shrubs recently sent to school head teachers in the Wellington district may also have reached Auckland teachers. It should have wide attention, for the subject is of great interest to SII who wish to see the native vegetation re-clothing the now weedinfested hills lying waste. There are many thousands of acres in this condition. The gorse and broom serve one useful purpose, it is pointed out; they give shelter to innumerable indigenous plants, ■which will in time form a new forest. There are all the makings ol the ancient forest in these natural nurseries of 'plants; and the attention of school children is directed towards the interesting aspect of the wild growth that can be studied near every city and town.

There certainly is a natural tendency to fight for survival 011 the part of our native plants generally. All example of this passion for getting the upper hand of foreign rivals is the persistence of several plants, particularly pittosporums, in the Tvotorua country. A Maori one day pointed out to the writer the vigour with which the .karo, a glossyleaved shrub or small tree, was reasserting itself on Mamiga-kakaramea and other hills in the large State Forest reserves. It wasfighting the Government trees, he said; wait a while, it was a wise tree, and would repair all the wast a 170 caused by tires. Tt would grow up under the shelter of the larch and other foreign trees, and so would other Maori trees; wait a while, some of the foreigners would have to give place to the Maori. He was taking a long-range view; but it seems reasonable to suppose that in the. long run the quick-growing and least valuable trees such as the exotic pines will give place to the good native timbers, the best crop that ever the New Zealand hills and -valleys grew. The karo is mentioned as an example noticed; it is a shrub of no particular value, except for the use the Maoris made of it, for dye purposes. But it. is one nf the ancient small trees of the district; and in spite of fire and other destructive agencies it returns, as others will in other districts, where rich forests once grew. The Destroyers of Beauty.

Another aspect of the spread of all kinds of introduced vegetation is discussed in a letter I have just received from a King Country correspondent who is keenly interested in the natural attractions and the historical interest of the district in which he lives. He laments the riotous spread of so much that is noxious and ti";lv in the plants that the ■pakeha brought- to the Maori country. Places of beauty such ,1? the Three Sisters Hills, the principal of which was Tokanni. near the -main south road through the King Country, were largelv covered with Scotch thistles, ragwort and other curses. (Incidentally, to complete the spoiling of these ancient pa hills, huge quarries for volcanic road material have been driven into T°kanui.)

"The invasion of exotics." this correspondent add.;, "is so complete that I have ■come to dislike most heartily even the r>ak and the elm—they are coaiv and vulgar in this country. Why is it that British people ican rro nowhere in the world without cartinsy half their own countryside with them? AA e Xew Zealanders are laughed at for our ill* judged introduction of fauna and flora that are not wanted in the land of the nolilest tree* and the mo>t "beautiful and rare birds. T suppose one must lx? -philosophic about these things; l>ut I am planting nothing but native trees; on uiy place. I have a small sheltered f»ul!v and T am working on the scheme at present. T wish to include as many species •as possible of t>ho-o trees and shrnl>- which were of economic value to the Maori. Time is flyiivr. I feel at one with Cecil Rhodes when ne said. 'So much to do; so little done.'"

Such plantation work as this King Country fanner is able to <lo is all to the pood. The weeds and exotics may flourish for a timet but the native of the soil sooner or later will assort itself in the land \vii: ,- h it possessed unmolested for untold ages.